Abbott, Shorten remember end of WWII

For a fleeting moment, hostilities ceased as Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten acknowledged those who served and died in the world war which ended 70 years ago.

Mr Abbott said just 20 years after the horrors of the Great War, Australians again took up arms to fight the evils of fascism, Nazism and militarism.

"Almost a million Australians, men and women, served in the Second World War and almost 40,000 died. To all of them, we owe a debt of gratitude that can never fully be repaid," he told parliament.

The 70th anniversary of the end of WWII on August 15, 1945 was commemorated at ceremonies across Australia on Saturday.

Mr Shorten said that unlike WWI it was "a war which brought conflict and bombing to Australian shores".

"Australian men and women came back from that war forever changed and indeed their families were forever changed," he said.

"As PM Curtin said at the opening of the war memorial about all our servicemen, these men were individuals fighting as a community for something they understood and cherished - the right to rule themselves like civilised human beings."